secretary
Pluralsecretaries
Pluralsecretaries
- 1A person employed to deal with letters, keep records, take notes and handle routine office work, for an organization or for one person.
Her secretary rescheduled the afternoon meetings and forwarded the urgent emails to her phone.
Hospital secretaries manage appointment records for hundreds of patients each week.
UsageOften secretary to a person or at a firm: secretary to the director; she works as a secretary.
- 2The official who leads a particular department of government.
The secretary of defense briefed lawmakers on the new policy.
Several secretaries resigned during the political crisis.
UsageUsually secretary of + a department: the Secretary of State. A capital letter in a title, lowercase when used generally.
Similarminister
Note
Used this way, the word works as a title rather than a job description, which is why it is so often capitalized: Secretary of State, Permanent Secretary. Yes Minister (1980) plays on the gap. A Permanent Under Secretary of State introduces himself with full ceremony, while the woman who types is simply "the secretary" in the clerical meaning.
- 3A managing or leading official in certain non-profit bodies, for example a political party, a trade union, or an international organization.
The general secretary of the trade union called for a strike.
As general secretary of the union, she led the talks with the country's biggest employers.
UsageOften general secretary or Secretary-General: the general secretary of the union.
Note
Here the word names a senior official rather than the person taking notes, and it often travels with general. Ban Ki-moon, for instance, served as Secretary-General of the United Nations. In parties, unions and international bodies the title signals high office, often the top one, so it outranks the clerical secretary despite sharing the name.
- 4An official of a club, society, or company who handles its formal correspondence and records, takes the minutes, and organizes its meetings.
The board asked the secretary to send notice of the annual meeting to every shareholder.
As secretary of the historical society, he kept the minutes and answered letters from members.
UsageLike other offices it often drops the article: as secretary of the club, elected secretary; the office worker is a secretary.
Less common meanings
- 5A type of writing desk, typically with a fold-out work surface over a set of drawers and a cabinet or shelves above.
He inherited a mahogany secretary with a fold-down writing surface.
The antique dealer restored several secretaries from the colonial era.
UsageAlso secretary desk or secretaire, which avoid confusion with the person who sits at it.
Similarbureau
- 6A secretary bird: a long-legged African bird of prey, Sagittarius serpentarius, that hunts on the ground.
On the open savanna we watched a secretary stamp hard on a snake in the grass.
The plains held vultures, eagles and a lone secretary striding through the grass on its long legs.
UsageShort for secretary bird, the usual full name.
- 7A person entrusted with another's secrets; a confidant.
Note
This is the meaning the whole word started from. Medieval Latin secretarius was "one entrusted with secrets," built on secretus, "private, secret," from secernere, "to separate, set apart." A secret was what had been set apart, and a secretary was the person admitted inside that circle. The sense is now obsolete, so modern writers use confidant and leave this meaning to older texts.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The original meaning of secretary was someone entrusted with secrets, a confidant. en.wiktionary.org
- Medieval Latin secretarius meant one entrusted with secrets and derived from Latin secretus, meaning private or secret. en.wiktionary.org
- Secretus derives from the Latin verb secernere, meaning to separate. en.wiktionary.org
- The underlying Latin meaning connects a secret with something set apart. en.wikipedia.org
- 8To serve as the secretary of an organization or group.
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Origin
Latin cernere 'to separate' took the prefix se- 'apart' to make secernere 'to separate, set apart,' whose past participle secrētus meant 'private, secret'; from that, Medieval Latin formed secrētārius, 'one entrusted with secrets.'